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Epicure

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Clay,

Regarding leather used for AS-made shoes, I've not come across anyone sharing my opinion on the relative softness compared to Loake's leather. That being said, there definitely are some other AS appreciators to be found here and there, and it would be interesting to hear other opinions, whether negative or positive.

As for suede, I'm quite happy to wear Herring Classics made by Loake and even own a pair made by Loake in India with which I'm perfectly satisfied, aesthetically and construction-wise. The only downside of these shoes is that the insoles don't wear as comfortably as my "proper" English shoes, and leave my feet a little tired by comparison. I avoid wearing them on days that I know I'll be in my shoes for a long time. I don't own any C&J suede, so cannot really comment whether I think they're worth the extra cost. My AS-made Herring shoes in suede have lasts identical to calf versions, and while they're nice to have, the suede doesn't look or feel any different to my eye alongside the suede used in my Loake-made shoes.

You're correct about my source for C&J shoes. I was very excited when I had the chance to visit Double Monk for the first time having walked away from McClouds feeling rather peeved with the advice that "The style you want (country brogue boot) is not popular here (Australia) and you won't find them anywhere without a special order..." In less than an hour I was walking out of DM with C&J Islays in tow. Needless to say, I don't have a particularly fond opinion of McClouds and even if I did, DM gets my patronage for range alone. Though you make a good point that C&J from Pediwear is looking more tempting than ever. Aside from the 'aggressive' city styling of C&J, the other problem is that Pediwear just don't carry a style of shoe in the colour I want at this time.
 
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fxh

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On a day when I'm on my feet all day and no sitting down, I'll only wear certain pairs of shoes or boots. Otherwise my feet would explode. With the chosen shoes my feet only feel on fire and not quite at explosion stage.

I do find Dainite soles with those round circles on them the hardest on my feet. A pity as I have a few pairs of Dainite shoes I like.

I do feel a bit sad about McCloud as they were an oasis in the Australian shoe desert for years. And served people well. But times change and businesses need to move, at least a little bit, with it. There was a few ways they could have countered the emergence of easy online and the springing up of other proper shoes stores. But I suspect they have missed the boat. They do have a loyal set of customers but there's a surge of new younger buyers I'm afraid they've missed.

I must say Florsheim has vastly improved their game in their Melbourne shoe shops. Even shooey agreed with me. Also it's worth checking out Mountfords from time to time especially their sales and outlets. Some of there suede and desert boots look good and can be pretty cheap. The also sell Sperry. Strangely they are inconsistent in what they carry in different stores so you need to check different stores out. There a small chain of men's clothing stores that sell Cheaney. There's a place selling Jeffery West too. Although they are a bit fashion y they are good shoes.
 
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meister

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They should have moved to the Double Monk vibe with the extra advantage of having their own factory to maybe do cheaper copies of top styles.
 

meister

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Thanks, my friend! The trip was only a week long but packed in a lot of stuff. Good to be back so I get to wear gear like this :D :
Nice jacket
 

Coxsackie

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Pauline Hanson. She's the hero Australia deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we'll make fun of her. Because she can take it. Because she's not our hero. She's a silent guardian. A watchful protector. A Dark Knight.


Pauline Hanson. Because everybody has the right to be a bigot. But not everyone has the strength.
 

Osiris2012

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Talk of herringshoes earlier, worth mentioning their summer sale has kicked off.
 

clayb

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As for suede, I'm quite happy to wear Herring Classics made by Loake and even own a pair made by Loake in India with which I'm perfectly satisfied, aesthetically and construction-wise.

I will be looking for a Herring Classic suede by Loake soon then.

Btw I've bought a pair of Knightsbridge black captoe last night. I was browsing their summer sale but could not find anything really interesting for my size. The Church's Consul looked tempting and I almost bought it instead of the Knightsbridge, but then I did some research and it seems they are not really SF approved. Also missing the free shoe tree means even at the sale price it's still 50% more expensive than the standard price of the Knightsbridge, hence makes the deal less attractive to me.
 
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fxh

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As for suede, I'm quite happy to wear Herring Classics made by Loake and even own a pair made by Loake in India with which I'm perfectly satisfied, aesthetically and construction-wise. 


I will be looking for a Herring Classic suede by Loake soon then.

Btw I've bought a pair of Knightsbridge black captoe last night. I was browsing their summer sale but could not find anything really interesting for my size. The Church's Consul looked tempting and I almost bought it instead of the Knightsbridge, but then I did some research and it seems they are not really SF approved. Also missing the free shoe tree means even at the sale price it's still 50% more expensive than the standard price of the Knightsbridge, hence makes the deal less attractive to me.
As my mate shooey would tell you - Church's is a man's shoe - not for boys. You may not be ready. Not cheap either.

btw - what size are you - somebody here might have stuff to offload. Always worth a try.
 

am55

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The Church's Consul looked tempting and I almost bought it instead of the Knightsbridge, but then I did some research and it seems they are not really SF approved.
I still wear my Churches from a decade ago and they are doing fine. They've moulded to my foot and are quite comfortable now.

The other thing about Churches is you can find some in Sydney or Melbourne, to try on. So you know your size and whether they are comfortable.

If I were in your shoes I'd go for Meermin, though; they're the cheapest decent choice I know of. Back in the days it was Markowski who allowed me to get more pairs for my budget. And I wear mine all the time these days.

Will be cross-posting this on the SOTD thread where it's a bit more relevant, but article on international prices post-Brexit finally done, although you've already seen 2/3 of it. Please let me know if you want to "know" anything else from our data, it will be a pleasure to dig: http://www.pricentile.com/article/did-brexit-make-british-retailers-competitive?a=48
 

Oli2012

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Shoes sold. Next up, 2 x navy and black Henry Carter knits. Unworn. $75 for both.
 

Geoffrey Firmin

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Will be cross-posting this on the SOTD thread where it's a bit more relevant, but article on international prices post-Brexit finally done, although you've already seen 2/3 of it. Please let me know if you want to "know" anything else from our data, it will be a pleasure to dig: [COLOR=1155CC]http://www.pricentile.com/article/did-brexit-make-british-retailers-competitive?a=48[/COLOR]

I've noticed that online UK versus US book prices have dropped 9-10% in the past week. Previously US editions were slightly cheaper than UK editions. Hopefully this is going to occur across the spectrum.
 
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am55

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I've noticed that online UK versus US book prices have dropped 9-10% in the past week. Previously US editions were slightly cheaper than UK editions. Hopefully this is going to occur across the spectrum.
Amazon is interesting is that it's one of the few sites that uses sophisticated pricing strategies, including discriminative pricing (that "discount from MSRP" is tailored to you) and competitive price matching. I'm actually a bit annoyed that we didn't get Amazon on the platform in time for Brexit, because I wanted to see if that price matching was international and how fast it happened. Are the book prices you watched back up?

In another instance of funky discriminative pricing, my Macbook quotes me a price around 50% higher for the same Kyoto Airbnb listing as my wife's Lenovo T40.
 

OzWino

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In another instance of funky discriminative pricing, my Macbook quotes me a price around 50% higher for the same Kyoto Airbnb listing as my wife's Lenovo T40.


I cant remember which accommodation/travel aggregator (possibly Expedia) but some of them also price based on the number of times you looked at a specific page over a time frame. So its always worth using another device with an anonymous IP to check to are getting a good deal.
 

am55

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I cant remember which accommodation/travel aggregator (possibly Expedia) but some of them also price based on the number of times you looked at a specific page over a time frame. So its always worth using another device with an anonymous IP to check to are getting a good deal.
That and many other things. I've been on the other end of the discussion. For example iPhone users had average baskets around 6x higher than other devices, with a 3x higher conversion rate, and anybody with an iPad was a true bonanza of limitless overspending. It does cut both ways - if you're detected as a price-sensitive, low conversion rate user, I can give you a better discount to incite you to convert and bump up my revenue numbers (which investors like) whilst making back the cash flow on the iPad visitors. We even talked about correlating IPs to the real estate value of the location (crawled off listing sites).

The problem is that it's one thing for the CEO to nod and say "yeah, this is a great idea" and another to get it implemented. So only the largest companies, and those with the least dysfunctional engineering departments, get round to it. It's the same with things like retargeting which you could use for recommendations but which most sites use to spam you with previously viewed items, mostly because they don't understand their own data warehouse or don't have engineers capable of doing a bit of machine learning.
 

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